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| Sudoku Game Practice logic by playing Sudoku. |
If someone tells you that Suzy and Sally are sisters and one is blonde and one is brunette, you might not know which one is blonde and which one is brunette. However, if you know that Suzy has blonde hair, then logically you know that Sally has brunette hair.
Ok, fine, but what does that have to do with math you might ask? Well often you can solve math problems with logic. For instance, let's say you're taking a test (without a calculator) and you get the following question: What is 543 times 837? Well you could take the time to multiply it all out. However, let's say you're given the multiple choice answers:
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B. 1,380
C. 454,491
In this case you can use logic to quickly find the answer because you know that it can't be zero and 1,392 is too small (it's 543 plus 837 not 543 times 837) so the only choice left is C. Using logic you save yourself the time and effort of multiplying out the whole problem to get to the answer.
As with most things, it helps to get into the practice of using logic. Fortunately there is an excellent way to practice logic with a popular game or puzzle called Sudoku.
Learning Logic with Sudoku
Solving Sudoku puzzles is based on a basic set of rules. The main thing to keep in mind about Sudoku is that you can only have one of each number from 1 to 9 in a column (vertically), a row (horizontally) and a sub-grid (referred to as a "region"). A region is a 3x3 grid within the larger 9x9 grid. There are 9 regions in the overall grid. If you look at Figure 1 you will see that each region is colored either light yellow or light blue. Each region is a 3x3 grid and is therefore made up of 9 squares. So each region has enough room for each number from 1 through 9. So, once again, the key to understanding Sudoku is to remember that there can only be one of each number within each column, row, and region. If the number 2 is within a certain column, it can't be anywhere else in that column and it also can't be anywhere else in the row or the region that contains the number 2.
Figure 1
Keeping the rule of having only one number per column, row, and region in mind, the first thing you can do when you start a Sudoku puzzle is analyze what numbers are already visible. The numbers that are displayed on the grid are called the givens, or the seeds. Usually (but not always) the more givens there are of a specific number, the easier it is to figure out the remaining numbers. For example, if you look at figure 2 you'll see there are already 6 sevens on the grid (all of the sevens are highlighted in light yellow). When the puzzle is completely solved, there will be 9 sevens on the grid. That means there are only 3 more sevens to find. The regions that do not have sevens in them are highlighted in light blue.
Figure 2